The present disclosure relates in general to the manufacture of containers used to transport product and/or display the product contents of the containers.
Various packages and containers are conventionally provided for transporting product to and storing product in a retail environment, and for display of the product to prospective customers. Such containers, made of a single or of multiple blanks, may be shipped in a knock-down state, for example, flattened but glued, stapled or otherwise affixed or joined together, such that the container is already essentially pre-assembled but not yet erected so as to be in condition to receive and/or store product. From such a knock-down state, known as a preassembly, personnel erecting the container need only open the flattened container by erecting the sides and/or ends of the container and then closing the container bottom and top walls to form the container into its erected condition. Such final assembly is usually performed by the product manufacturer/wholesaler/retailer prior to loading any product into the container.
Conventionally, the top of a container is generally made up of at least two panels but may include four or more panels creating, for example, a quadra-lateral, hexagonal, or octagonal container. The top may then be closed by moving and overlapping the top panels in a sequence to cover the interior of the container. The container may then be locked, for example, by pulling upwardly on an overlapped edge of one of the bottommost of the top panels and pushing downwardly and inwardly on an overlapping edge of one of the topmost of the top panels. This usually requires two hands, with one hand doing the pushing downwardly or inwardly toward the contents of the container on a portion of one of the top panels and the other hand pulling upwardly or outwardly away from the contents of the container.
The downwardly or inwardly motion that would be part of the closing and locking of the top may bruise or damage the contents of the container, such as perishables or other delicate contents.
Depending on the thickness of the panels and the geometry, the manipulated top panels may be themselves damaged.
Such containers, as described above, may include a slit in, for example, the topmost panel to have access to the bottommost panel. Thus, the top may not be completely covered.
A container usually includes at least two panels that form a top of the container. A container, according to the present disclosure, includes a top that includes four top panels and a locking tab on one of the top panels. The locking tab is located on a bottommost panel of the top panels when the four panels have been manipulated to close and cover the exterior of the container. The locking tab is pulled up to and over a topmost panel of the top panels to close and lock the top. Thus, when locking the top, there is no downward motion of any of the top panels and thus there is no contact with the contents of the container. Such a locking tab is configured to easily be unlocked and locked multiple times without damage to the locking tab or to any of the top panels. The locked top is secure and is configured to resist opening during transit of the container when the container is erected, filled with product and locked.
An embodiment of a container, according to the present disclosure, includes one or more blanks having bottom, side and top walls. The term side walls is used to denote the four sides of a container as opposed to the top and bottom walls of the container. The side walls may be end walls. Each wall may have one or more panels. At least one of the walls is configured to be an opening wall to provide access to the erected and closed container. The opening wall is formed of panels which overlap to provide both the opening to an interior of the container and also to provide a locking closure. In a closed condition, a bottommost panel of the opening wall is partially overlapped by two panels that are each adjacent to the bottommost panel and by a topmost panel located opposite to the bottommost panel and which topmost panel partially overlaps the two adjacent panels. A locking tab of the bottommost panel is configured to be lifted upward and to partially overlap the topmost panel to form the locking closure. During a locking of the container, an extension portion of the locking tab on the bottommost panel is initially located below the topmost panel and is moved upward or outwardly to be above the topmost panel to form the lock and complete the closure.
The present disclosure relates to various embodiments of blanks forming containers and embodiments including various configurations of locking tabs.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.